So yesterday I spent a bit of time googling running stuff. I seem to do that a lot these days. I had some Christmas vouchers and bought a couple of books about running, too: Born to Run: The Hidden Tribe; and Your Pace or Mine? What Running Taught Me About Life, Laughter and Coming Last. Obsessive? Moi?!
Anyway. So I stumbled across Phil Maffetone, as anyone who spends 5 minutes with google looking at running will probably do and had a little look at his 180 Formula and MAF Method. Very basically, it’s about training slower to go faster, being kind to yourself, not stressing the body, decreasing pain and injury. Phil should feel right at home at C25k.
I also did a bit more reading about heart rate zones generally, and slow running. I read something somewhere about our running ‘gears’, and I think I have been running along using only two, when actually, there are probably five, because I’m driving a bog standard vehicle here. So I made the decision that for the next run, I would go slow, trying to stick at around 130-140bpm as per the Maffetone Method. I also thought last night that as I can go in to work a little later today and want to climb tomorrow, I would run his morning.
So the alarm went off at 6am. It was dark outside and the snooze went on sharpish. The alarm woke me again and I thought, nope, not going, changed the alarm to 7am. Then lay there looking at the ceiling and found myself rolling out of bed and pulling on the calf sleeves. Instead of music, I put on a guided run on the Nike Run Club App ‘Just a Run’ and left the house, complete with pink high vis strappy thing.
I went slow. So slow. For the first time in this process, I was conversational. I found the low gear! And it was soooo easy. At no point did I feel tired, or stressed, or worried. I just ran... and ran... and ran... ‘Just a Run’ was brilliant, it really talked to me and I smiled and made comments as I ran, which may have looked odd, but when you are running that slow you are past the point of worrying about how you look. I even waved at people and said a cheery hello today! I smiled and thanked drivers! There were minutes of no talking, and no notification when I passed each km. I tried to look at the Fitbit a few times and tap the screen to see how my heart rate was doing, but my eyes are too old to see that tiny moving screen. I figured I must be doing less than 140bpm, because my breathing was easy and I felt so good.
Michael said stop but the NRC session hadn’t quite finished, so I ran a bit longer and then realised I had run for 30 minutes. And I could have run 10 more, I wasn’t tired. I was buzzing.
Got home and thought about not looking at the stats, but couldn’t resist taking a peek. I was a bit taken aback by the fact that my average bpm was still 161! Yet my pace was over 90 seconds per km slower than usual and it didn’t feel hard. So I’m a bit confused. If I want to stay under 140 (and probably, under 130) to stay in zone 2 and maximise aerobic efficiency, I’d have to walk/run to stay there.
It was a great run. The stats don’t deter from that. It was by far my best, most enjoyable run to date, whilst being the slowest. I guess I will continue to go slower, and try some more of these guided sessions/podcasts/silence. And do a bit more thinking about the heart rate zone stuff...
Oh, the photo? That is Dean Karnazes, who ran nonstop for 350 hours in 80hrs44 in 2005, did 50 marathons in 50 days, then after the last marathon, ran the 1300 miles home. A few other achievements, too. The man is a machine. His body never receives signals to stop, as he doesn’t have a lactate threshold. He doesn’t get fatigued, or suffer cramps. It’s only falling asleep that stops him. 😳
! The realisation that you are running and feeling OK and in fact great was the best thing ever, and its hard to find because we all want to go fast. I remember the very run where I looked around me and thought " I'm running and feel great" since then I've been an addict. There are still bad runs, don't be disheartened, they're a bit of a mystery, but I've never regretted doing a run.
W8 over
Slowing down and 5k
W8 R1
Week 1 Run 1 
